Apple Cider Vinegar: What Happened To The Real Belle Gibson & Where She Is Today

4 minutes read

Table of Contents from Article

This article contains SPOILERS for Apple Cider Vinegar!

The miniseries Apple Cider Vinegar tells the true-ish story of Australian scammer Belle Gibson’s life between 2009 and 2015, raising the questions of what happened after reporters exposed her lies. Netflix has gained a reputation for its true crime content, and Apple Cider Vinegar is a great addition to its catalog. The show starring Kaitlyn Dever is similar to Netflix’s Inventing Anna, as they both follow a pretty young woman who lied and ripped people off to get ahead.

However, the 2025 miniseries has more dark humor and an edgy tone to the story that has led to positive reviews for Apple Cider Vinegar. The show diverges from the norm in one other way as well. Though it’s based on a true story, the series doesn’t include slides at the end which reveal the characters’ fate after Gibson is exposed. However, since 2015, Gibson has gone to court, evaded consequences, and started going by a different name.

Apple Cider Vinegar was inspired by the true crime book The Woman Who Fooled The World by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano.

Belle Gibson Admitted To Lying About Her Cancer Claims In 2015

Penguin Random House Stopped Printing The Whole Pantry

After getting exposed by investigative journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano in The Sydney Morning Herald, Belle Gibson provided The Australian Women’s Weekly with an exclusive interview where she admitted to lying about her cancer claims for the first time ever. When asked directly whether she had cancer previously or in the present, she said, “No, none off it’s true.” However, the actual statements in the article are frustratingly contradictory and push blame onto others.

The biggest takeaway from The Australian Women’s Weekly interview is that Belle Gibson is an unreliable narrator whose words cannot be trusted.

In the same interview, Belle Gibson claims she received cancer diagnoses in 2009 and 2014, explaining it as something she held true about herself, alongside being tall, blonde, and having hazel eyes. Clair Weaver states that Gibson’s friends reached out to warn of her lies. The scammer also makes many statements in the interview that scream of exaggeration. The biggest takeaway from the Women’s Weekly interview is that Belle Gibson is an unreliable narrator whose words cannot be trusted.

Belle Gibson Was Fined Almost $410,000 For The False Claims About Her Donations To Charity

Belle Gibson Still Owes Money To The Australian Government

At the end of the Netflix miniseries, the Apple Cider Vinegar main character cheekily tells the audience that they can go google what happened next, rather than doing the whole “what happened after” segment that’s traditional in true crime TV shows. It turns out, the Australian government finally took Belle Gibson to court in 2017.

Kaitlyn Dever in Apple Cider Vinegar next to a fresh ripe tomato

Kaitlyn Dever’s Netflix Series Based On Real-Life Notorious Scammer Debuts With Solid Rotten Tomatoes Score

Kaitlyn Dever’s new Netflix series based on a real-life notorious scammer debuts with a solid Rotten Tomatoes score ahead of its release.

Gibson went before the Australian Federal Court for breaking consumer laws. She’d promised to to donate proceeds from her The Whole Pantry book and app. However, the charities and proclaimed recipients didn’t have any record of her donations. According to the Herald Sun, the Australian courts hit her with these fines (in AUD):

$90,000 for two claims that she donated money to charities from the company and app sales
$150,000 for conning the family of Joshua Schwarz, a nine-year-old child who died of a terminal brain tumor. She’d promised proceeds from The Whole Pantry would generate income for his family.
$30,000 for a Mother’s Day promotion where she promised funds would be donated to The 2H project and the Bumi Sehat Foundation
$50,000 for false claims about charitable donations when launching The Whole Pantry

Added together, her fines were $410,000 AUD, which is approximately $256,500 USD. This is much less than the $1.1 million AUD she could have faced. The judge barred her from saying that she was diagnosed with brain cancer before May 24, 2016, and she can’t say that she cured her cancer by rejecting conventional medicine. However, they gave her leniency in one big way – Belle Gibson wasn’t required to make a public apology.

Despite the fines, Gibson wouldn’t pay, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation, claiming that she couldn’t afford to pay the $410,000. However, the consumer watchdog found that she’d spent $91,000 between 2017 and 2019 on things like clothes and traveling to Bali and Africa. In 2021, the Victorian Sheriff’s office raided her house under a seizure and sale warrant to recooperate some of the outstanding fines, which have reached over $500,000 AUD because of penalties and interest (via Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Unfortunately, as of the time of Apple Cider Vinegar’s release, she hadn’t paid anything, according to the Herald Sun.

Belle Gibson Has Largely Stayed Out Of The Public Eye Since Her Scandal

Belle Gibson’s Exact Whereabouts Are Unknown

Kaitlyn Dever as Belle chewing on her thumb and looking at a computer screen in Apple Cider Vinegar

Since the news of Belle Gibson’s scam broke in 2015, the fraudster has maintained a private life. In 2020, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Gibson had integrated herself into the Etheopia’s Oromo community in Melbourne, Australia, going by the name Sabontu. Although she’d been involved since 2016, the community was allegedly unaware of her identity until January 2020. However, according to The Australian Women’s Weekly, the leader of the community asked her to leave in 2021 after learning her identity, claiming to the publication that she was “exploiting the good heart of the people in our community.”

The book covers for American Sherlock by Kate Winkler Dawson, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, and The People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry.

10 True Crime Books That Desperately Need TV Adaptations

True crime stories are gripping, horrifying, and often brilliantly compelling. However, these titles haven’t been adapted for TV but are deserving.

It’s unclear what exactly she has been doing since leaving the Oromo community. In February 2024, A Current Affair caught up with her when she was at a gas station and living in the Northern suburbs of Australia. When asked about the fine by the news reporter, she claimed to A Current Affair that she hadn’t paid her fine because she couldn’t afford it, and she refused to answer the questions about whether her victims deserved an apology. Based on her desire to remain out of the public eye, it’s highly unlikely she will ever comment on Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar.